Meet Chef Kyla Radziejewski at the University of Florida

Of course, we all need food to survive. But, for Chef Kyla at the University of Florida, food is life. Growing up meals were always the center of the day for her and her family and things like daily fresh bread were the norm. He father was an executive chef in Switzerland and ate a heavy, traditional, European diet. Her mom ate a “high maintenance” vegan diet in Key West. Going back and forth with the different lifestyles gave Kyla a good mix.

She attended the University of Florida and studied linguistics, but it was during this time that she realized that she was more interested in food. Her first summer off, she did an internship at an organic farm in Virginia and it completely changed her idea of food. She saw the process full circle. She kept going back to that farm in the summer time and participated in a lot of farm to table events, a trend she's glad to see become more mainstream. She believes how food is grown and raised is as important as how it’s prepared.

The culture of College Chefs as described by Chef Kyla is flexible homestyle. “[College Chefs] is unique in terms of food because [we] adopt and change for the need of regions based on the best quality based availability”

Check out some of Kyla's beautiful food below and keep scrolling for a Q&A.

Q: What is you favorite food?

A: I love lasagna [especially when you’re] making your own noodles. I used to hate it until I realized you can make it with ricotta cheese and crazy thin noodles, with fifteen layers. All of my teeth are sweet. I could eat dessert for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And bread- I love to make it and eat it.

Q: What is your best food memory?

A: This braided, German, heavy, brioche, egg bread. We’d have it every Friday, my dad would make it for pick it up from the bakery. We would make french toast with it if it made it to Sunday.

Q: What do you like to do when your not cooking?

A: I still work on organic farms at market and harvesting. I have three dogs. I like to go hiking/ paddle boarding, I try to get outside as much as possible.

Q: What is consistently a hit dish at your house?

A: Steaks are consistent and mac and cheese. No matter what you get audible cheer for dessert.

To keep up with the rest of the Chefs of College Chefs, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.